Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Remembering the Last Time the Yankees Had a Pitcher Play in the Field

Over the weekend the New York Yankees and the Baltimore
Orioles played extra innings in two of their three games causing both bullpen’s
to run a little short-handed. While in many cases we see positional players
take the pitcher’s mound and pitch, which is always entertaining, very rarely
do we ever see a pitcher take the field and man a position. We did on Sunday
though when Bryan Mitchell manned first base for the Yankees with the thought
process that he would come back out for the 10th inning to pitch
again. The last time the Yankees saw a pitcher man a position in the field was
on July 24, 1983 inside Yankee Stadium against the Kansas City Royals.

If the date didn’t immediately jump out at you then let me
explain. This game will forever be known as the great Pine Tar Incident in
Major League Baseball. The controversy came in the ninth inning with two outs
when George Brett hit a two-run home run to put the Royals ahead of the
Yankees, well until Yankees manager Billy Martin came out and argued the call.
Martin noticed a large amount of pine tar on Brett’s bat and asked the umpires
to rule on the matter. The rule is the amount of pine tar on the bat cannot
exceed the width of home plate, Brett’s bat did and he was called out at home
thus ending the game and the rally. Brett stormed out of the dugout furiously
after the umpires and after pleading his case to no avail. The game was over,
the Yankees win.

Now long story short the game was protested and the Royals
eventually won the protest. The game was restarted and Brett’s home run was
allowed and the Royals hung on to their 5-4 lead for the victory but that’s not
the point of this post. The point of the post is who was playing in center
field that game. Maybe you have heard of him, Ron Guidry?

Martin was furious about the game being protested and then
continued so in an act of protest the Yankees manager moved Guidry to center
field. Guidry replaced then center fielder Jerry Mumphrey who has since been
traded to the Houston Astros while Martin also moved left-handed throwing Don
Mattingly to second base after then second baseman Bert Campaneris was injured.
Martin, like Joe Girardi over the weekend, did not want to potentially lose a
pinch hitter, runner or pitcher which accounted for the decisions.